PLENTY OF WORK AND PAT IN HARD CASH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 505, 30 November 1881, Page 1

PLENTY OF WORK AND PAT IN HARD CASH.

To the Editor. Sir, —The term Liberal has become so hackneyed that I am very much at a loss to know what it really means, but the liberal way in which you have allowed the columns of your paper to be used for the discussion of the political questions of the day, entitles you, in my opinion, to be called a Liberal. I am one of the many on whom the curse of Cain has descended, for I have always been under the necesity of earning my bread by the sweat of my brow. I, therefore, know something of the labor market, and consider that Mr Wason was very far from being right when he said that no working man need be out of employment, but might earn his LBO or L9O a year. I consider myself an average workman, and receive LI a week—the highest wage I know of being given to a farmer’s man. I will venture to say that he does not give such wages as he mentioned. His farm laborers*know what I say to be true. Besides, it is a well known fact that during the last three winters there has been great scarcity of employment. You will remember the meetings of unemployed; their appeals to Government for assistance; their petition to the President of America; and, to stave the wolf from their door, how the public had to- open soup kitchens to save many an honest family from starvation. He has told ua the number of men that had left Victoria, but his statement respecting the reasons why they left is not true, and every old Victorian knows it. He was careful to say nothing about the number of working men that had left this colony—the best of the bone and sinew of the country. The most of them were men with money who would gladly have settled down here, but gridironing, pre-emptive rights, and class legislation, debarred them from obtaining a home of their . own; for the shingly plains, and the snow clad mountains of Canterbury, they wisely rejected, with the remark, that as the squatters had feasted on the fat of the carcase, they could gridiron the bones too. With such a class, Mr* Wason, in my opinion, has no sympathy. Whether he is a squatter or no signifies little. His laudation of the constitution of our House of Lords, his support of the present Ministry through thick and thin, and in the face :oi the Patetere, the Taranaki and other jobbery, proclaim him as a partisan of the class who have nicely feathered their nests at the expense of the people, and made the people’s, 1 can assure you, not abed of down. His remarks concerning payment by cheque. I consider silly, especially to come ■ from a • igifown-up man like him. Last year I lost a cheque for’ L2s—six months’ Wages. Had it been in hard cash it would have been gone for ever but flic cheqW-was'dhJmediately shopped at the bank; I got and got the money. Payment by cheque prevented two little boys from -running bootless that winter. 5 His ideamf payment of wages eyery week, or month, might suit pieiTqf ,his class, but I am cer- ’ tain that, it Hmlgenera'li'fW '6f J ,'faime)fk 'nor •feeftetfiien, for this reasotf—a general wfc, do not

' seed such paymen. be very u&cfflsftifeiit for fi t^e.beeb, ' bn tie' conditio tilT after ; ft when I could not get jvork I iSttbH an 'amogeineiit suite ; :; Suit&i me, and fnjured no fited tihe country. Why ii aotbegivenib the farmer c r b6dy! efie ? r ') l;have ! heard largeiandholtfers.' will swa '• raallonea, just W the w ' Jonal; 'l am inclinedto' ’ h ■ Wbm. buth-ia it, for, Mr. W to OVM-hlB nn i ' him, i Vo iittle onoa Lave eyes,’ 'bleed i theirmerry i that the. a j&teore' thai They, ,| a y\e- m the farnu > hia advo<^ g __yo Ur cold thoy re . The cl will not di bird th^. rea( j 8 OUJ , ‘' a4n convinced th Mr Waa novice. I have lved , my vote, but to <£ be ;. i td;his .form or..star Iv r 1 jri f6di%' to>«aidy>^6lit^j beneetdehit;coimt^'7 t-nJv ptfiaenk cho{ to perpatuatethfl ,evd9 ( ;,0 piaicougbkito try to get . —■ -simplicity of his heart, fo :*! : j:a¥ww .he knows no,be ' r " ur coirespppiieni cai experience aa_.to '.fa farm laborers.. The ,ay ' oats: 2Qa to 2ba ner weel